We'll just have to disagree on that. Here's what I think. Windows 8.0 was a remarkable victory for the user experience centric design advocates within Microsoft. It was a truly innovative, eminently discoverable, brilliant design and an incredibly thoughtful implementation. And it was beautiful. The press coverage of the new release left me more disgusted with the computer-centric media than I have ever been in my life, and I worked at Microsoft during the antitrust lawsuit days, so that's saying something. The irony of hearing the shamelessly bitter complaints about how drastically different 8.0 was  from the same folks who sneered about Microsoft's supposedly utter lack of innovation was breathtaking.
 
Like many others, I use it daily on my desktop and nightly on my Surface RT tablet (where it truly shines) with no cognitive dissonance whatsoever. It even boots into the start screen rather than the desktop and I've yet to utter an involuntary whimper of dismay. Anyone who can watch an 8 minute video could plumb its depths. That so many chose not to is unfortunate
 
It was, however, an incomplete design in many ways. It lacked configurability. It's WinRT API lacked many capabilities that it needed to be a viable alternative to the iOS/Android platforms. It was in many respects a 1.0 release that nonetheless deserved the opportunity to mature. I would like to have seen incremental refinements in desktop mode configurability and deeper accommodations for the needs of the enterprise rather than the cowardly dismemberment of the entire concept that the current strategy seems to be embracing. 
 
That's just my opinion. I have accepted the victory of the Luddites and am moving forward with whatever this more timid incarnation of Microsoft brings to the table. But to say it was bad design, imho, ime, etc. implies a fundamental misunderstanding of the design. You may not like it, but millions did and still do.
 
Edit: I toned down my conclusion because it's not my intention to give offense, however unintentionally. We all have opinions.

kevinwal
But it is optional. No one need upgrade. 

...until MS stops supporting your current OS and stops providing you security fixes.. Wanna wait until you pay for it?
Smart users will wait six months at least before they consider upgrading (unless they are getting a new PC).

Doktor Avalanche

kevinwal
But it is optional. No one need upgrade. 

...until MS stops supporting your current OS and stops providing you security fixes.. Wanna wait until you pay for it?
Smart users will wait six months at least before they consider upgrading (unless they are getting a new PC).

FYI, Windows 10 is not your only option for upgrading if you're in a must-upgrade situation. You have at least a year to buy 8.1 even after 10 ships, perhaps more (MS policy is to announce end of sale for a product a year in advance and they haven't announced it for 8.1 yet.) and then there are  downgrade rights, which MS hasn't defined for 10 yet but likely will soon. 8.1 extended support ends in 2023 so you have a little time yet to decide what to do.
 
You're certainly welcome to wait six months. Is it smart to do that? Depends on your situation and what you value most. A lot of people would agree with you. It's not smart for me personally but if all you care about is a stable DAW, waiting is the best thing to do regardless of the upgrade cost.

I didn't think they would release another Preview version being so close to the RTM date but I got 10158 release this morning.

Not only that but scarcely a day later they released 10159. I upgraded to that with no issues.

And just to add for those who think if you use XP your going to die. 
I have em all... XP, W7 and 8.1. I use them all and each has it's good and it's annoying points. 
 
This 2004 Toshiba Satellite I'm typing on , it still has XP, and they occasionally offer updates. I use it 100% for all my surfing including Bit torrent. I am running MS security essentials and CC Cleaner. I use Fire Fox. If it gets a virus so what, but it's been over a year now and it's still fine. I think viruses are a result of bad habits when surfing, not the OS's ability to block them. 
XP is so easy to keep going because we have it figured out and there is nothing hidden from us. Not so with W 8.1. I'm a control freak and XP is under my thumb. I have only 80% figured out how to control W8.1. 
Over all I like W7 because it is still more open ended and rock solid. I have that on an 2010 Sony Laptop that came with Vista. I have W7 on my old DAW I kept intact as a spare. 
I would have installed W7 on this machine but there are no drivers. I also run Xp on my Netbook and as well as a spare laptop someone gave me I use as a backup for gigs.  
 
W8.1 was cheaper than W7 when I built my new DAW so I now use that and I really don't notice because I turn it on, it boots in seconds and I'm working in Sonar or Wave Lab without fuss. 
I also installed 8.1 on our home office computer and I hate it more there because of the large amount of apps I use that are no longer supported so I'm having to upgrade a lot of software now. But It was cheaper than buying W7 so what can you do. I will of course take the bait for W10 on those 2 machines.
But I will run my XP and W7 machines until the Mobos die. 
( I keep all my Hard drives new) 
 
 
 
 
 

Cactus Music
And just to add for those who think if you use XP your going to die.

That's not the issue. The issue is that it's not at all secure regardless of using MSE (which is still one of the worst virus programs out there regardless of how many people say they use it and swear by it) or other applications that help protect the computer.
 
If all you're doing is using it for games, etc. No problem. If you do anything where you have to log into accounts, email, banking, Facebook, Steam whatever, that's where the problems start because people who have these exploits to get into XP can do so very easily now that it's no longer being patched. As of Day 1 when XP support went offline, there were a ton of 0Day exploits that went online giving people full unabridged access to these computers. All they need is an IP address which is equally very easy to obtain just from you browsing the web.
 
That is why XP is bad to use. Again, if all you're doing on it is screwing around, then more power to ya, but don't expect that MSE or any other software will be protecting you.

 
FWIW, I'm with those who think people should move off of XP as quickly as possible, or if you choose to stay with it, keep it off the network forever. Infected computers are like Typhoid Mary. They become a danger to other computers around them. Running a networked system that you know is vulnerable and which has no prayer of ever being secure is just handing a bad guy a gun to shoot you with, particularly for a business.  
 
And yeah, a lot of malware requires the user to do something silly, that's very true, but some don't. Besides, I wouldn't bet my business on me never, ever doing anything silly with my computer.
 

If you are running XP you should either turn off the internet, or wipe it and install Linux. Or upgrade...

Doktor Avalanche
 . . .  or wipe it and install Linux. Or upgrade...

Yes, because installing Linux would be a 'Downgrade'